Flesh on the Bones: Animal Bodies in Atlantic Roundhouses

This volume presents the state of research across Europe to illustrate how comparable interpretative frameworks are used by archaeologists working with both prehistoric and historical societies

Stonehenge remodelled

We are pleased to present the latest account of the sequence of burial and construction at the site of Stonehenge, deduced by its most recent excavators and anchored in time by the application of Bayesian radiocarbon modelling. Five prehistoric stages are proposed, of varied duration, and related by our authors to neighbouring monuments in the Stonehenge environs. While it may never be possible to produce a definitive chronology for this most complex of monuments, the comprehensive and integrated achievement owed to these researchers has brought us much closer to that goal. It is from this firm platform that Stonehenge can begin its new era of communication with the public at large

From Machair to Mountains

South Uist in the Outer Hebrides has some of the best preserved archaeological remains within Britain and even further afield. Three distinct ecological zones - grassland machair plain, peaty blackland and mountains - each bear the imprint of human occupation over many millennia. The machair strip, long uninhabited, is filled with hundreds of settlement mounds, occupied from the Beaker period 4,000 years ago until a few centuries ago. The blacklands bear the traces of past farming practices as well as the remains of medieval settlements, more recent blackhouses and lochs containing duns, brochs and crannogs. In the hills lie the upstanding remains of shielings, Iron Age wheel houses and Neolithic chambered tombs.<br/>The results of large-scale excavations of Bronze Age houses (Cladh Hallan), an Iron Age broch (Dun Vulan), Viking settlements (Bornais and Cille Pheadair) and post-medieval blackhouses (Airigh Mhuillin), combined with extensive surveys and small-scale excavations that have identified hundreds of new sites, are being brought together in a series of volumes to provide an invaluable record and assessment of South Uist's archaeology covering the last 6,000 years. The large set-piece excavations are to be published in separate monographs. The results of the surveys and small-scale excavations are presented here

From Machair to Mountains

South Uist in the Outer Hebrides has some of the best preserved archaeological remains within Britain and even further afield. Three distinct ecological zones - grassland machair plain, peaty blackland and mountains - each bear the imprint of human occupation over many millennia. The machair strip, long uninhabited, is filled with hundreds of settlement mounds, occupied from the Beaker period 4,000 years ago until a few centuries ago. The blacklands bear the traces of past farming practices as well as the remains of medieval settlements, more recent blackhouses and lochs containing duns, brochs and crannogs. In the hills lie the upstanding remains of shielings, Iron Age wheel houses and Neolithic chambered tombs.<br/>The results of large-scale excavations of Bronze Age houses (Cladh Hallan), an Iron Age broch (Dun Vulan), Viking settlements (Bornais and Cille Pheadair) and post-medieval blackhouses (Airigh Mhuillin), combined with extensive surveys and small-scale excavations that have identified hundreds of new sites, are being brought together in a series of volumes to provide an invaluable record and assessment of South Uist's archaeology covering the last 6,000 years. The large set-piece excavations are to be published in separate monographs. The results of the surveys and small-scale excavations are presented here

Border parasites: schistosomiasis control among Uganda's fisherfolk

Copyright @ 2012 Taylor & Francis. This article has been made publically available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.It is recognized that the control of schistosomisais in Uganda requires a focus on fisherfolk. Large numbers suffer from this water-borne parasitic disease; notably along the shores of lakes Albert and Victoria and along the River Nile. Since 2004, a policy has been adopted of providing drugs, free of charge, to all those at risk. The strategy has been reported to be successful, but closer investigation reveals serious problems. This paper draws upon long-term research undertaken at three locations in northwestern and southeastern Uganda. It highlights consequences of not engaging with the day to day realities of fisherfolk livelihoods; attributable, in part, to the fact that so many fisherfolk live and work in places located at the country’s international borders, and to a related tendency to treat them as "feckless" and "ungovernable". Endeavours to roll out treatment end up being haphazard, erratic and location-specific. In some places, concerted efforts have been made to treat fisherfolk; but there is no effective monitoring, and it is difficult to gauge what proportion have actually swallowed the tablets. In other places, fisherfolk are, in practice, largely ignored, or are actively harassed in ways that make treatment almost impossible. At all sites, the current reliance upon resident "community" drug distributors or staff based at static clinics and schools was found to be flawed.The Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, Imperial College, under the auspices of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Fiskerton

Fiskerton, located in the Witham valley of Lincoln, is one of only a handful of excavated sites in Europe to reveal the Iron Age practice of ritually destroying special and elite objects by placing them in a body of water. This volume reports on the 1981 excavations on the bank of the River Witham and provides fascinating insights into this important aspect of Iron Age religion and culture. A remarkable group of Iron Age and Roman artefacts was found in association with a wooden causeway in use from at least 457 to 321BC, including bronze and iron weapons and tools (some decorated with ornamental motifs), bone tools, stone tools, jewellery and pottery. The Iron Age finds are earlier than those from similar watery sites such as La Tène in Switzerland and Llyn Cerrig Bach in Wales, and the precise dating of the Fiskerton causeway by dendrochronology establishes it as one of the earliest known structures in Europe belonging to the La Tène culture. This report provides detailed descriptions of the Iron Age, Roman and Medieval artefacts and the human and animal bones found at the site. The authors compare the Fiskerton evidence with other British, Irish and European examples of ritual or votive deposition in water; they discuss the construction and the appearance of the causeway; and they examine the significance of Fiskerton as a religious site, especially in terms of its topographical context, as a river crossing and as a boundary or liminal area between mainland Britain and the former island of Lindsey

A Late Bronze Age ring-forst at Bayvil Farm, Pembrokeshire

A 70m-diameter circular ditched enclosure identified as a cropmark in 1996 at Bayvil Farm, Eglwyswrw, north Pembrokeshire, was initially thought to be a segmented-ditched enclosure, an early type of Neolithic henge. Geophysical survey in 2012–13 and partial excavation in 2014 has shown it to be Late Bronze Age ring-fort dating to the eleventh-tenth centuries BC and subsequently occupied during the Early Iron Age. Late Bronze Age circular enclosures of this kind are well known in eastern England but this is the first such ring-fort to be discovered in Wales. A medieval corn-dryer identified by geophysical survey was also excavated which is probably to be associated with the probable traces of the medieval settlement of Bayvil, associated with the redundant St Andrew’s Church which has possible medieval origins

Excavations at Castell Mawr Iron Age hillfort, Pembrokeshire

Castell Mawr is a small hillfort in the community of Eglwyswrw, Pembrokeshire. Thought to have been built on a Late Neolithic henge, it was investigated with four trenches in 2012–13. These excavations revealed that Castell Mawr’s main period of construction and use was in the Earliest/Early Iron Age during the late eighth–late fifth centuries BC with hints of an earlier human presence on the hilltop in the Late Mesolithic and Bronze Age. No definite evidence of any Neolithic activity was found, however, and the earthworks all date to the Iron Age. The hillfort’s Iron Age sequence started with a roundhouse, followed by a pair of concentric timber palisades built during the late eighth–late fifth centuries BC. An enclosing rampart was constructed around the hilltop, followed by a cross-bank. The final activity post-dating the cross-bank dates to the fifth century BC, slightly earlier than or contemporary with initial construction at nearby Castell Henllys. The Castell Mawr/Castell Henllys sequence confirms Murphy and Mytum’s (2012) model for long-term processes of settlement development in west Wales

Carn Goedog medieval house and settlement, Pembrokeshire

This report describes the investigation in 2011 and 2015 of two groups of relict houses on an upland common on the north flank of the Preseli hills in North Pembrokeshire. Their locations, along with medieval records, provide strong indications that these were seasonal settlements. Excavation of one subrectangular building (House C) produced finds that included medieval pottery and a spindle whorl with Romanesque decoration. A radiocarbon date of cal. AD 1030–1200 at 95.4% confidence from charcoal in the hearth of this building provides the earliest firm date identified as yet for hafodydd (‘seasonal settlements’) in Wale

Matérialité et rituel. L'origine des tombeaux en pierre du sud de Madagascar

RÉSUMÉMatérialité et rituel L'origine des tombeaux en pierre du sud de MadagascarPourquoi certaines sociétés s'adonnent-elles à la construction de tombeaux monumentaux en pierre alors qu'elles résident dans de petites structures éphémères ? Qui est responsable de la construction de ces tombeaux en pierre ? Quelles furent les conditions sociales et géopolitiques à l'origine des traditions de complexes funéraires monumentaux ? Les changements apportés au rituel funéraire ont-ils influé sur l'évolution de l'architecture funéraire ? Cet article propose une exploration des circonstances qui entourent l'utilisation des tombeaux monumentaux en pierre construits par les Tandroy du sud de Madagascar.Mots clés : Parker Pearson, monumentalité, sépultures, histoire, Tandroy, MadagascarABSTRACTMateriality and RituaL The Origins of Stone Tombs in Southern MadagascarWhy do certain societies build monumental stone funerary architecture yet live in small, flimsy houses ? Who initiates practices of building tombs in stone ? In what social and geopolitical circumstances monumental tomb traditions began ? How do changes in funerary architecture compare with changes in funerary ritual ? This paper explores the history and context of monumental stone tombs currentiy built by the Tandroy people of Southern Madagascar.Key words : Parker Pearson, monumentality, funerary, history, Tandroy, Madagasca